MOOSE’S RB1M. 
‘YOBSSR! 
This should direct attention to the following 
considerations for improving farm stock: 
First.— Breed from the best. Let sire and 
dam make as near approach to perfection as 
is attainable. 
Second .— Use tceU-lred animals. The 
ability of animals to transmit their good 
qualities depends upon their descent through 
many generations, from parents, all of whom 
possessed those good qualities. Whatever 
the personal merit of a, sire, he will be 
unlikely to re-produce himself, if he lias a 
defective ancestry. Devons and other breeds 
that have been bred pure for many genera¬ 
tions, stamp their qualities with much cer¬ 
tainty upon their offspring. 
Third.- Avoid incongruous unions. Never 
couple together animals essentially dissimilar. 
Fourth. — Strive to correct any defect in 
one parent by a corresponding excellence in 
the other. 
Fifth. — Never breed in-and-in, unless the 
animals so bred are singularly free from 
defects. 
Sixth. — It has been demonstrated in 
many cases that the male parent influences 
mostly the size and external form; and the 
female parent, the constitution, general 
health, and vital powers. 
Serenth. — No amount of “blood” will 
save a race from degeneracy, unless sup¬ 
plied by nourishing food aud due attention 
paid to keeping up the general health and 
vigor. 
To encourage unbelieving breeders to 
make a liberal outlay for good blood, 1 
will refer to the marked excellence of some 
families, where a single sire has transmitted 
his wonderful qualities through many gene¬ 
rations, and over a very wide relationship. 
“ Favorite ” (252) is the acknowledged parent 
of almost every choice purc-brcd Short-Horn. 
It has been claimed that no horse ever made 
first-elass time in trotting unless he had a 
strain of Messenger blood. Merinoes are 
not reckoned of much account unless they 
come through a certain ewe, of the Humph¬ 
rey importation, that Stephen Atwood 
of Waterbury, Conn., worked a whole 
season, when a young man, to pay for. My 
friend, Dr. Randall, the worthy president of 
the National Wool Growers’ Association, 
called my attention to the fact that at. the 
State Sheep Show at Canandaigua, where 
there we re several sheep of very marked 
excellence, valued at $3,000 a piece and 
more; though coming from different States, 
all were descended from Vermont “ Sweep- 
stakes.” Surely, “ Blood will tell.” 
■ — ■ -»«-»•- 
A DISEASE AMONG CALVES. 
A disease has prevailed among the calves, 
the past full, killing about thirty in this vi¬ 
cinity. They are rather stupid when taken 
with the disease, walk rather stiff, refuse all 
food, breathing becomes labored, they be¬ 
come slightly bloated, have a disposition to 
lie down a considerable portion of the time, 
appear towards the last to be in great pain, 
rising up and tying down often. They ap¬ 
pear to be. costive until just before they die, 
■when they generally get to running some at 
the bowels: tho excrement is sometimes 
tinged with blood. I also noticed the drop¬ 
pings of some of thorn worn tinged with 
blood previous to being taken. After they 
were dead, the blood settled on the back and 
neck, and in the legs; though one that I lost 
was clear of anything of the kind. 
On opening the body the manifolds ap¬ 
peared to be quite dry, showing great inflam¬ 
mation, I thought; below that it was quite 
moist. 
Some pf the calves In the vicinity were 
fed on sour milk; some on the whey of Yan¬ 
kee cheese. Those calves that were weaned, 
suffered least. The largest aud fattest were 
the ones, in almost every case, to take the 
disease and die; no calf was saved that was 
attacked with the disease; all died, though 
doctored different ways, in about twenty-four 
hours, or less than that, some of them. 
Now what we want is, to know what the 
disease is, and the remedy if any there be, or 
If there is no medicine to cure them a pre¬ 
ventive is asked for, so that we may not suf¬ 
fer any more loss in this way. 
I should have stated that coldness of the 
limbs was noticeable; and that some were 
found dead; not having been known to be 
Sick. A SUBSCRIBER, 
Dexter. N. T. 
-- 
FEEDING YOUN G STOCK. 
The President of the Franklin (Mass.) 
Farmers’ Club says:— “ Calves may he most 
economically fed by taking them from the 
cow during the first, week. Having learned 
to drink new milk readily, skim milk, 
warmed to the temperature of new milk, 
may be substituted gradually until, at three 
weeks old, the new milk may be withheld 
entirely. Oil meal and wheat bran should 
now be given, commencing with a table¬ 
spoonful once a day. This should be scalded 
and allowed to stand a short time to swell. 
After a few days, the provender may be 
given at each meal, and the quantity in¬ 
creased at discretion. It is of the utmost 
importance that calves, and indeed all young 
slock, be kept in a thrifty, condition.” 
utlb (Eraps. 
-> (jd f 
FARM DISCUSSIONS. 
[Continued from page 09, last number.] 
The afternoon aud evening sessions were 
devoted to lectures by Prof. Johnson, 
On the Nutritive Value of Grasses and Green 
Fodder, 
As indicated by chemical analysis and 
feeding trials. These lee tines systematized 
our existing know'ledge upon this subject in 
a very admirable manner, and were illus¬ 
trated by a chart showing the nutrilive value 
of a great variety of alimentary substances. 
Wo can only glance very briefly at some of 
his results. He said that until recently, it 
had been supposed that woody fiber was in¬ 
digestible ; but recent very careful experi¬ 
ments bad demonstrated that this idea was a 
mistake. It had long been known that 
worms found coiled up in hard woods got 
very fat, and this could only be derived from 
woody fiber. In Germany, cows were fed 
on substances which had been carefully 
weighed and their exact composition ascer¬ 
tained. All their excrements were accu¬ 
rately weighed and analyzed, and those sub¬ 
stances which were found to exist in a smaller 
amount in the excrement than was given in 
the food, were supposed to be absorbed in 
the tissues of the animal. Thus, if ten 
pounds of fiber had been given in the food, 
and only six pounds had been found in the 
excrement, it was supposed that the missing 
four pounds had been taken up by the body 
of the animal. Repeated experiments of this 
kind showed, beyond all controversy, that 
fiber was digested by graminivorous animals. 
The albuminous matters in grass are taken 
up by the muscles. The fat, is contained in 
cells, the covering of which is composed of 
albuminous matters; there must therefore be 
a certain relation kept up between the el 
bumiuous and fatty matters in food. Ex¬ 
periment showed that when a large propor¬ 
tion of pure fat was fed to an animal, a con¬ 
siderable proportion of it passes off in the 
excrement; the same amount of fat was con¬ 
tinued in the food; but if the amount of albu¬ 
minous matter was also increased, none of 
tin: fat was then found in the excrement; the 
reason was, that in the first case, there was 
not enough albumen in the food to furnish 
the covering of the fat cells, which could not 
therefore be; digested, aud passed out as a for¬ 
eign substance through the rectum. But when 
a sufficient amount of albumen was given in 
the food, these cells were formed, and the fat 
was completely digested and assimilated by 
the animal. 
Those grasses which contain the greatest 
amount of fattening matter make the most 
fat, aud the same is true of all alimentary 
substances. Thus, oil cake, cotton seeds, 
flax seeds, &c., are known to have the most 
fattening properties. Three calves were fed, 
one on skim milk, one on fresh milk and one 
on fresh milk with three pounds of cream 
added to it. These reduced to their proxi¬ 
mate elementary constituents, had as follows, 
each week: 
First allf, .sittin milk, 1.16 pounds Of casein, 55. 
pounds of sugar, 1.2 pounds of fut- 
Seeond calr, fresh milk, 3.51 pounds of casein. 
6.3|)ounds of sugar, 2.0 pounds of fat. 
Third calf, fresh rnUk iutd cream, 2.38 pound? 
Of casein, 7.7 pounds of sugar, 7.5 pounds of fat. 
Tho weekly pain of tho first calf was 5.9 
pounds; of tho second, 122 pounds; of the third, 
20.1 pounds. 
The digestibility of albuminous substances 
varies very greatly. It. was found that all 
the albumen of bean meal was digested; but 
only twenty-six per cent of the albumen in 
wheat straw; of oat straw twenty-nine per 
Cent; of bean straw fifty-one per cent; 
clover hay fifty-one per cent, and meadow 
hay fifty per cent were digested. 
Animals require very different amounts of 
nutriment at different periods of their gro will, 
and when used for different purposes. A 
sucking calf requires six-tenths of a pound 
of albumen for every one hundred pounds of 
live weight. Steers and heifers a. year old 
require three tenths of a pound of albumen 
for every one hundred pounds of live weight. 
At. t wo years they require a quarter of a 
pound; but a milch cow requires three and 
onc-tentk pounds for every thousand pounds 
of live weight. Forage plants vary very 
much in the amount of nutriment they con¬ 
tain in different stages of their growth. 
Thus: 
Red Clover laid of albumen, 2d May, .71 per 
cent; 25th of May, 19 per cent.; Juuo 15th, 14 
percent, Thts was In 1857. 
Red Clover laid of albumen, 6th Mav, 23 per 
cent.; 31st of May, 19.4; June 14th, 19.8. This 
was in 1858. 
The composition of Red Clover at different 
periods la as follows: 
Very Young. 13ih,Tune. 2Sd .lime. 20th July. 
Water, 16.7 16.7 10.7 16.7 
Ash, 9.8 7.3 5.8 5.6 
Fiber, 24.7 32.8 32.9 41.70 
Albutnenoids,21.9 13.8 11.2 9.5 
Other matters,26.9 29.5 33.4 26.5 
Thp water in the above represents the water 
which remained after being dried in the air. 
Tlic “other matters”are sugar, guru, extract¬ 
ive, &c. 
Tt. has been ascertained that, the more water 
there is in the soil the more there will be in 
the grasses. Manure changes the composi¬ 
tion of grass. Thus, in unmanured land 
meadow hay contained 7.6 per cent, of albu- 
menoids; in manured land there was 10.3 
per cent. 
Management of Pasture Lands. 
It was stated that blackberry vines would 
be killed effectually, if salt is sprinkled on 
them when the dew is on, and then sheep 
turned in; the sheep will eat the vines for 
the sake of the salt. If they are salted three 
or four times the sheep will get a taste for 
the vines and will keep them gnawed down 
until they die. Several said that repeated 
cuttings would kill them, and that the most 
successful period was when they were in 
blossom. Others asserted that they had 
tried these methods again and again without 
success. 
Professor Brewer said that there was one 
method with all weeds which might be re¬ 
lied on as effective. The leaves of the plant 
acted both as stomach and lunge; if it was 
deprived of these, life could not be main¬ 
tained; some plants could live longer than 
others without nutrition, but all, without ex¬ 
ception, must finally succumb if the leaves 
were cut off as fast as they appeared. The 
plant was tasked to its utmost capacity when 
engaged in developing its fruits and blos¬ 
soms, hence it was most easily killed at that 
time. When he was a young man, a person 
came round offering to teach the art of kill¬ 
ing Canada thistles for ten dollars; the se¬ 
cret was to cut them on the 30th of June and 
the 30th of September, which coincided with 
the periods of the first and second blossoms. 
The Canada thistle had enormously long 
creeping roots, which will send up shoots 
and produce new plants; he had himself 
traced them nine feet; but if cut at this time 
very few of them have sufficient vigor to 
send up fresh roots, and they therefore die. 
Some of the members said that they had kept 
Canada thistles constantly cut without per¬ 
ceiving that the number was in the slightest 
degree diminished. 
Mr. Collins said that the chief enemies of 
his pastures were hard-hack, golden-rod, 
blackberry vines and white birch. lie 
could not kill bushes by cuttiug them; but 
he had conquered white birch by drawing 
them out of the ground with cattle, roots and 
all. The other enemies were conquered by 
grass seeds and high mamiriug. He used 
shell lime for his pastures with excellent ef¬ 
fect. But black muck was the main basis of 
his manures; he drew it three miles, but it 
paid him better than anything else. It was 
placed bohind his cow's, and the manure they 
dropped was thrown back upon It three 
times a day. Every throe days this mixed 
muck and manure was thrown out on the 
manure heap; the urine from the cows was 
conducted by a trough to a tank, and was 
pumped from thence over the manure in the 
heap once a week, which kept it from firc- 
fanging. He never had found anything that 
did his pastures as much good as this. 
Mr, Osborn said that there was but one 
time to kill bushes by cutting, and that was 
the month of August; he would guarantee 
that if this was well done the bushes w ould 
all die. 
Mr. Auger inquired whether leached 
ashes were as good for manure as unloached; 
he 6aid he had often heard it asserted that 
they were. 
Prof. Johnson replied that he could not 
say with certainty; but he could say that if 
their value depended on the alkali they con¬ 
tained, they certainly were not. He had re¬ 
peatedly analyzed leached ashes, and had 
found but very slight amounts of alkali 
in them. 
- +++ - 
WHEAT CULTURE IN WESTERN 
NEW YORK. 
A Western New York Farmers’ Club 
has been organized this winter, which holds 
its meetings semi-monthly at Rochester. At 
the session held on Jan. 20, the subject of 
“ Wheat Culture” was discussed. Wc give 
from our notes, some of the most interesting 
facts elicited thereby, and in the future will 
endeavor to report the proceedings of the 
Club as fully as their importance will war¬ 
rant. Western New York is capable of 
building up the best Farmers’ Club in Amer¬ 
ica, Have its formers and fruit-growers in¬ 
terest and energy enough to do it ? 
The presiding officer, Willard Hodges, 
Esq., announced the subject for discussion, 
and F. P. Root read an essay. He is an old 
wheat grower and successful farmer. He 
believed wheat one of the most profitable 
crops that. Western New Y ork farmers could 
cultivate, and drawing largely on his own 
experience with the crop for facts, he advo¬ 
cated the culture of the finer and whiter 
varieties. White wheat was the most profit¬ 
able, He had tried many varieties, and, at 
present, had the most faith in the Diehl. lie 
described it as a bald wheat, having occa¬ 
sional spurs, with short, stiif straw, plump 
head and red chaff. 
An inquiry for pure Diehl seed was an¬ 
swered by two or three wheat growers to t he 
effect that it was not. to be procured in West¬ 
ern New York. It was more or less mixed 
with other varieties. Owing to the trial of 
so many kinds of late years, all wheat grown 
in this region is very apt to be more or less 
mixed. 
While no one disputed the fine outside 
appearance of the Diehl wheat, some farmers 
expressed disappointment in the quality of 
its flour. But few seemed to have floured it, 
and while some found no fault, others re¬ 
garded its flour as not superior to that made 
from red wheat, and decidedly inferior to that 
from the old Soules. Mr. Green, a practical 
miller and former, had been disappointed 
with the character of the flour from tlic 
Diehl. He thought the berry was covered 
with an unusually thin skin or bran which 
broke in grinding, and mixed with the flour. 
He apprehended that was its most serious 
defect. Mr. Root suggested that cultivation 
might obviate this defect, and remarked that, 
when the Soules was first introduced, its 
flour was held inferior to the Flint, which it 
soon, however, entirely superseded. 
The sentiment, of the Club seemed to be 
in favor of thin seeding. Less than one and 
a half bushels per acre, drilled in, had pro¬ 
duced last year more than thirty. Mr. Otis 
had sowed, by way of experiment, seven rods 
of ground at the rate of five quarts per acre 
(we suppose the grains were dibbled in one 
in a place,) and had harvested at the rate of 
forty-seven bushels per acre. The plat com¬ 
prised several varieties, and was hoed. He 
was in favor of light seeding, but thought, 
while yielding better, thin grain svas more 
liable to rust, and also ripened later. 
At this point the discussion was switched 
off the straight line, and Norway oats were 
talked about, and soma other subjects intro¬ 
duced, which were not pertinent, or in good 
taste, and wasted time. After a two hours’ 
Bitting, the Club adjourned for two weeks. 
-- 
CAUSE OF RUST ON WHEAT. 
BY DANIEL LEE. 
The close, long continued analytical re¬ 
searches of Dr. Sprengel led to the conclu¬ 
sion that an excess of iron salts, and espe¬ 
cially of the phosphate of iron, greatly favors 
the growth of red rust on the leaves and 
culms of wheat and other cereals. A soil in 
the vicinity of Brunswick that did not lack 
drainage, but lime, was remarkable for grow¬ 
ing wheat and barley, always attacked and 
generally blighted by rust. A quantity of 
this soil was taken into a field generally free 
from this often ruinous parasite, to form an 
artificial soil fifteen inches in depth. Wheat 
planted in this was badly rusted, while that 
grown all around it, in the same field, was 
free from the malady. There was something 
in the soil peculiarly favorable to the fungus 
which stains one’s clothing as red as bog iron 
ore itself. Low ground in which salts of 
iron collect in excess is generally recognized 
as being very subject to rust. Drainage is a 
partial remedy and no more. 
Dr. Sprengel found on analysis a frac¬ 
tion over a half per cent, of the phosphate of 
iron in the soil under consider:) t ion, with only 
a trace of* lime imeombined with silicic acid. 
As free lime will take phosphoric acid away 
from iron, and indirectly convert iron into 
the harmless peroxide, and at the same time 
produce the valuable fertilizer, phosphate of 
lime , liming was prescribed and the cure was 
perfect. 
Here is a plain case where the analysis of 
a soil by a competent expert detected the 
source of a great and permanent evil, aud 
transformed, 113 by magic, a mineral poison 
into plant food of inestimable value. To de¬ 
cry soil analyses by skillful chemists is shal¬ 
low quackery—a weed that finds too much 
tiivor with American farmers. 
-— +»♦ 
A CORN CROP. 
I plowed up a four year old clover sod for 
corn. One-half of it was manured on the 
surface the previous fall, the balance this 
spring. While harrowing and getting it 
ready for planting on the 37th and 28th of 
May, I found it badly stocked with grey 
grubs; could see them at all t imes as we fol* 
lowed the harrow. We let it. lay until the 
9th of June; harrowed, rolled aud marked 
it out without seeing a grub; planted a part 
that afternoon, and finished the next day. 
On the 15th, at noon, nine-tenths of it was 
up; on the 23d began to cultivate it; 35tli 
measured some twelve inches high; on the 
8th of July, four weeks from planting, it, 
measured thirty-seven inches; on the 17th of 
July tassels were out thirty-six days from 
planting; on the 26 th of August got fair sized 
ears for boiling—seventy days from planting; 
on the 17th of September began to cut it up— 
a large ami heavy growth. 
Now for the result: got 330 bushels of cars 
of sound, bright corn from three and two- 
thirds acres'—ninety bushels per acre; also 
one hundred bushels of potatoes from less 
than an acre; three-quarters of an acre 
sowed to corn broadcast, from which we fed 
five cows six weeks all they would eat, once 
a day; cut up the balance, (about onc-balf) 
cured it for fodder, of which wc had two 
loads in first-rate order. The lot contains 
five and one-third acres,with twelve second- 
growth maples in it. It was originally elm, 
basswood, birch and maple timber; was un- 
derdrained in part. p. f. b. 
Hull's Corners, N. Y. 
1 - 11 , 
Fiinjrt or Burnt,—R'wnarlring’ or smut in grain 
the Journal of Cboyii ary says:—“Doubtless the 
reader, if familiar with tann work and a kccn- 
sighted observer, hits often seen a kind of ethe¬ 
real smoke or evaporation proceeding from the 
diseased heads of grain, when moved by a singlo 
breeze. This apparent vapor is formed of the 
millions upon lujiifoiis of the seeds of the fungi, 
which, proceeding from the ruptured vessels, 
Boat like an airy cloud or gossamer veil whither 
the winds may drive them. The atmosphere is 
loaded with these germs of the laltcr days of 
summer; and, If jt wore not for a wise provis¬ 
ion connected with their fructification and 
growth, fungus or mildew would spread over 
the vegetable world like a pall of death. Noth¬ 
ing but tire or st rong acids seems competent to 
destroy tho seeds, no tenacious arc they of 
vitality. Summer’s heat or winter’s frost can¬ 
not kill, nor water drown them.” 
- 
Manuring Cotton in the Hill.—A cotton grower 
in Georgia manured his cotton in the hill, so to 
speak, instead of applying it broadcast, and 
gathered five thousand pounds to the acre, with 
a prospect of one thousand more when the la¬ 
ter portions arc matured. T he same party was 
riuite successful with u more limited application 
on another field of thirty acres. This mode of 
applying manure to cotton is a great saving of 
material and much more productive than the 
old one, with very little additional expense. 
|nbustrial Kopies. 
FARMERS VISITING FARM3. 
This is one of the most useful employ¬ 
ments a farmer can be engaged in. It is 
getting the necessary knowledge for his busi¬ 
ness. Not only the best farms, but the poor¬ 
est also, may be visited with advantage. An 
eminent farmer once said he never visited a 
farm, of whatever character, but he found 
something useful to him. 
A man’s failures arc instructive os well as 
his success. To know what to avoid is 
often very important. It is always to be re¬ 
garded, as in its exercise the closest judg¬ 
ment is often required. What we have about 
us, what we see, instructs us, whether at 
home or abroad. At home it is of the most 
importance. This is especially so with 
farming. Our land adjoining our neighbor’s 
comes much under the same conditions for 
success. What grains will do best on such 
and such soils; what, grass, what fruit,— 
fruit especially,—as locality has a decisive 
influence on the many varieties, — all this is 
important and must be tested. It is so im¬ 
portant that it can hardly be overestimated. 
Our neighbor tests it for us; we need then 
but engage in it, avoiding the failures, and 
securing the success. 
We should make this a business; take 
pains to do it; make it as regularly a part of 
farming as sowing and saving manure. Di¬ 
rection must always precede everything,— 
and this comes exactly under this head. 
Farmers are always willing to communi¬ 
cate,— and a man can see for himself—he 
needs but keep his eyes open. How much 
benefit has resulted from an observation of 
John Johnston’s mode of farming? The 
whole country has been benefited, more or 
less, by hit; system, of drainage, his mode of 
raising wheat and other grains, and his feed¬ 
ing of sheep and cattle on the form. And 
there are others; almost every neighborhood 
has them. And tve have all kinds of suc¬ 
cess and non-success. We need but look 
and see for ourselves and be benefited. We 
should not depend upon ourselves alone; 
many know more than one.— f. g. 
- - -»-»•»—-- 
THE FARMERS’ CLUB. 
Next in importance to a good agricul¬ 
tural paper in a community is a well con¬ 
ducted Farmers’ Club. Both accomplish the 
same object, but by entirely different means. 
One is the forerunner of the other. Their 
benefits arc co-equal and mutual. The paper 
reports experiments and trials in various 
sections with soils and crops, while the Club 
reduces these to practice and appropriates 
such as are of value to the members. It 
may be properly termed an Agricultural Ex 
change, where those of one vocation meet to 
impart and receive information. 
This reciprocity can only be effected by 
thorough organization, which is the great 
lever of modern progress. While order 
should prevail in these meetings, formality 
and a rigid adherence to rules should he 
avoided, or the end will be defeated. Fa¬ 
miliarity with the plans, labors, and results 
of our fellows is thus secured; and it failures 
and successes are faithfully reported, much 
loss may be averted. 
In some sections, farmers ancl their wives 
meet once a month at the houses of members, 
and whore the club is composed of only a 
dozen families, each will be visited yearly, 
and their farm operations observed and criti¬ 
cised. Let. Clubs be organized in the long 
winter evenings whenever practicable. Tho 
district school-house answers admirably for 
meeting, in sparsely settled places, and it is a 
good substitute for the lyceum, where both 
cannot bt^faustained. 
Assemble, organize, collect, distribute facts 
and theories on all brandies of agriculture ; 
and your store-houses of knowledge will be 
replenished and prepared for the approach¬ 
ing season of toil. —d. b. h. 
